-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Is anyone in the media smart enough to follow the massive decline in museum attendance after the new guides come on board? I imagine it will be staggering. One can only wonder what a disaster this is going to turn into. Diversity has its price, the hair weave and nail salon is located right next to that Rembrandt guy.
Woke theatre from dunces. Free experts replaced by freeloaders. Hold my beer, we’ll fire anyone white. Clumsy dog whistle.
What a sad story. The Art Institute as far as I can remember for the last 50 years or more was a place of beauty, culture, peacefulness– and a lot of history put in the mix. Groups like Urban Gateways, Boys and Girls Clubs and many others used to give otherwise unattainable exposure to fine art to thousands of inner city youth. Highly trained volunteers from whatever income level provided first rate lectures and up close introductions to fine art to so many young people who never would have had the opportunity otherwise. Shame on these strutting peacocks in charge… Read more »
Dead on right.
Another formerly great place that I will never again step foot in. The wokesters are intent on tearing down, not building up. BTW this week I start a new job in a northern suburb, my former job was in Ravenswood, but even that is now very unsafe, the CTA is a horror show. I’m never stepping foot in Chicago again, adios…!!!
Perhaps the museums and opera houses and cathedrals can be repurposed by unionized city employees then staffed by social workers at $50K per year to hand out needles and abortion pills. Sale of the art collections should yield enough to pay their salaries for a decade or more. If they pay the heat bills the structures can house homeless from October to May. Doubtless there are also some books to be burned at local libraries and universities. Several centuries of learning and culture can probably be destroyed in a decade. Fewer years if they pay overtime. The fierce urgency of… Read more »
You say this jokingly but it is the ultimate goal. Anti-racism is really just another form of communistic redistribution. To an in-group at the expensive of the out-group. This article even alluded to this when that art director say something like how many Monets does we really need? The out-group most simply put is white people, and the in-groups are anti-racists. They want to sell dead white people art to buy BIPOC art and make their friends and cronies rich. The sad part is that most of these sold off pieces (And they will all eventually be sold, woke isn’t… Read more »
Let my membership expire! Done with them as well Good luck! not a dime more from me
Leftists eating Leftists, no matter their wealth. Hard for me to get to excited.
Here’s one Rondeau may be able to understand: If you have 5 gallons of the cleanest, sweetest water, and then put several drops of pooh in it what do you have?
These days, the worst people are running what used to be the best things in Chicago.
It’s truly heart – breaking… “Ah, at least I have my memories…” 🙁
Sad commentary on a world-renowned Chicago institution’s succumbing to the woke mob.
Does anyone in their right mind believe six inexperienced salaried docents can replace the institutional knowledge or scope of 82 seasoned volunteers?
Sadly another Chicago institution falls victim to the ludicrous diversity, inclusion, and equity (D.I.E.) mob.
Art Institute is unfortunately now held captive by its bubble-encapsulated current group of wealthy board members, a group of virtue-signaling “progressive” pseudo SJWs with fat bank accounts, themselves extremely well-protected from real outcome of their espoused “anti-racist equity social justice” rhetoric. They ride in chauffeured vehicles, live in camera-monitored hard-wired panic-buttoned security-protected homes, reside for long periods in their out-of-state second and third homes, send their children to exclusive expensive private prep schools and elite colleges, and socialize within their small circle of like-minded peers. Their needs are seamlessly attended to by others. They consider themselves superior to everyone else… Read more »
You description is spot on.
I recently read of a concept called “luxury beliefs”-
Like a Birkin bag ( a very expensive Hermeś handbag), luxury beliefs are expensive, fashionable, and confer immediate status on those espousing them.
But they can only be afforded by people whose status shields them from the harm those views can cause.
These board members illustrate the concept to a tee.